The Source of Inspiration

In your light I learn how to love.

In your beauty, how to make poems.

You dance inside my chest,

where no one sees you, 

But sometimes I do,

And that sight becomes this art.

-Rumi

Are we terrified to think for ourselves? College students were given the task of just sitting alone quietly with their own thoughts (without their cell phones to look at), or, if they wanted to do so, give themselves a painful electric shock. That was all there was to do for fifteen minutes or so. Shockingly, most chose to shock themselves! (more)

I have noticed that since joining the electronic world in 2011, my own attention span has become fragmented. As a long time (but lousy) meditator, I also have noticed that I often resist meditating only to discover when I actually sit down and set the timer and settle in, I often get really into it and go on much longer after the ending bell rings. 

But it is hard to stop and sit down in the first place, and then to slow down enough to be here now. The speed of the electronic world is so intense and exciting that I get entrained, and do not not want to leave its thrill. It's like when driving for a long time and then when you stop, the visual and physical afterimage of the road goes on for a long while afterward. 

But if you want to know the Source of inspiration, the door is located in the silence. It is series of doors, actually. Each one is higher up the mountain of inspiration, and each one is more beautiful and alluring than the previous one.

The trick is to greet each new revelation or insight or idea with a nod, and go on. As far as this lousy meditator can tell, the doors go on forever. The mere effort to just sit down in the silence and think of nothing apparently is enough to bring about an endless flood of somethings. Of course, at any time, you can turn around and bring a little something back to use.